Birthday Girl

First Snow

Really?? Is it supposed to snow this much in October? This was from about a week ago, and it just seems wrong...like how they put the Christmas decorations out in September at Costco. Seriously, I cannot take Christmas decorations in September, or three inches of snow in October.

The cat lover...

Here is a summary of our trip to Brian and Jenny's back over a month ago. Sadie loved Bilbo, and any little kitty she sees for that matter. Alas, her dad is allergic, and our landlords don't like cats... so no little kitty for Sadie in the near future. She will have to play with Sasha and Morris when we visit cousin Lucy.

Why don't they make this in my size???

Yes, I realize that they probably make red pea coats in my size, but not with black and white polka dots inside the hood! The cutest things are always in kids sizes. Kelly and I always think so at least!

D2

Congratulations to Sierra, who passed her rating to be a D2 a week ago. It was lots and lots of hard work, and I'm a little late in congratulating her, but we are so proud of her!

In my continued existence as the worst blogger ever, I am not posting pictures, videos, or funny stories about my kids. Instead, I am posting a link to a funny post on another blog, about homeschooling. As a homeschooling mom of a sassy seven year old, I think I might have had some tears running down my cheeks. Caution, it is a story about wool underwear. You have been warned.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2009/10/wanna-bet/

The Little Helper

Shocking, two posts in two days. Don't get your hopes up in the future, but a post about the big helper is coming soon...

I am the most lame blogger in the world. First of all I never finished our vacation posts, I'll try to post some photos by Christmas, and the baby has been crawling since June, and I have not posted anything about that, and this week she took off walking. So here's a video of her standing and crawling, and some laundry baskets and random clutter in our house... just keeping things real. One of these days I will catch up with my life...

Dinosaurs, Hot Weather, and Californiarado

Day 4. We woke up and packed up and headed out of Rock Springs, and it was HOT! We drove through basically the desert, and drove past Flaming Gorge National Park, which looked like a nice oasis in the middle of a desert. We reached Utah, and in Vernal, we visited the Natural History Museum. It had big statues of Dinosaurs and some nice exhibits. Mostly they were nice because they were inside and air conditioned. We watched a nice movie about how dinosaurs lived hundreds of millions of years ago, and Sierra had a few things to say about that after watching the Dr. Dinosaur movies (sorry, only my mom will understand this). We decided to skip the excavation site because again, Sadie was sleeping, and it was HOT. We also took a look at the campground and decided to keep driving. There was a sad little muddy river, no shade and some rocks. We drove and drove and drove and got to Glenwood Springs, CO. Supposedly there was a campground there, but unlike Wyoming and Montana, where there are hundreds of signs telling you where the campgrounds are, and RV parks and campgrounds around every corner,and right off of the main road, Colorado does not seem to promote the activity of camping. We kept driving and decided that in this part of Colorado, camping means staying at the Super 8 with the rock facade to keep in line with building codes. Even Target had a rock facade. That is a LOT of rock. There were no campgrounds that we could find in Carbondale, or in Basalt, except for one completely packed, rundown RV park that I am sure the city of Basalts' community planners are devising ways to sieze and bulldoze as I type these words. It did not conform to the rock facade standards. Unfortunately the campbook I had grabbed at AAA did not have Colorado, so we stopped at a gas station (with a cool antique wood and rock siding, and even the Conaco sign was ritzy), and asked where a campground was. "Are you kidding, this is Colorado, there is camping everywhere?!!" was the answer we got. They told us how to get to all this camping, and we headed out. We went through a little town that looked expensive, and started driving on the road with all the camping. After 20 minutes of driving, we decided that their idea of camping was the pullouts for the fly fisherman. It certainly wasn't the areas with the 50 bazillion "no trespassing" signs and the huge summer houses along the river. It was a beautiful canyon with red rock and lots of aspen trees. We were all very tired and ready to get out of the car when we pulled into the national park at Reudi Resovoir. It seemed that 50 other cars from California had the same idea, and the campground was already full! I think those poor 20 people that actually had campspots were stuck in gridlock all day while Suburbans and Range Rovers and Mercedes SUV's drove through the campground in a constant stream. It was completely nuts. We drove 30 minutes back to the main road, called the condo and added a night to stay in Snowmass for the night. It was nice to have a nice soft bed and a shower. Aaaaahh.

Wild mustangs...

Day 3. We woke up after a great night of sleep, Sadie slept until 8am. Thank you 4D batteries. We ate breakfast, packed up and got up to the Hot Springs pool as soon as it opened. It was awesome. It had a beautiful view, and it was super clean. We all had fun swimming, even Sadie. After about an hour and a half we hit the road. We drove through the badlands, and got to Rock Springs just in time to visit the BLM office. The nice lady there gave Sierra posters and all kinds of information on how to adopt a wild horse, God bless her. Sierra has not been the same since she learned that a wild mustang can be adopted for only $125 dollars. I don't know how a kid that "hates math" and "can't possibly do all those problems" can figure out in about 30 seconds that it will only take about 5 months to save enough to adopt a wild mustang. After the propaganda visit, we got to go out to the observation deck and spent about an hour while Sierra picked out all the horses she was going to adopt with some binoculars. You can guess what the evening conversation was about. After staying at the most awesome campground in the world the night before, we stayed at the Rock Springs KOA, and it was...well, it had a pool, and it had wireless. My mother always said "if you can't say something nice...".

Disneyland...National Park Style

Day 2. We slept not very well, due to the fact that I forgot to pack the 4D batteries that I thought were for the lantern, and ended up being for the little machine that blows up the mattress we sleep on. Oops. And Virginia City's 15 souvenir shops all close at 6 o'clock sharp, so we slept on the ground. Sadie mercifully woke us all up at 6 am. I'm sure all the other campers were happy about that as well. We ate some dry cinnamon rolls and headed out on the road. We got into West Yellowstone an hour and a half later. Sierra was having fun playing the license plate game, which works really really well in the Yellowstone area. We visited the Bear and Wolf Discover Center, and saw lots of wolves and bears, including the mama bear of two little cubs we used to visit at the Pullman Bear Center. That was cool. We then headed for Yellowstone, and when we got to the big Ranger Station entrance we all decided it was just like Disneyland. There was a huge welcoming sign, and Forest Rangers in these neat outfits, and we had to pay a ton of money to drive through. There were also thousands of people driving through from almost every state in the country (trust me, we have a map with little check marks on each state we saw...the license plate game). There were traffic jams from people jumping out of their cars and taking photos of animals on the side of the road (we did this too), and there were people everywhere. We drove by Old Faithful but decided to skip the hike to see it because of two reasons. First of all, Sadie was asleep, and the number one rule is don't wake a sleeping baby. Second of all, the parking lot for Old Faithful and the lodge and the shopping mall (yes, shopping mall) looks like the parking lot at Disneyland, jam packed full. It was insane. So we kept trucking along. Grand Teton National Park was less crowded and so beautiful. The mountains are breathtaking. We stopped to eat lunch and Sierra swam in a lake. It was really nice, except for the ginormous mosquitos. We then drove through Rodeo Drive North, I mean Jackson. I don't think Jackson should really belong to the state of Wyoming, I think it should technically belong to California. We camped at an awesome site about 8 miles off the road with a hot springs. I think that the only reason it wasn't full at 7pm when we got there was that it was 8 miles off the main road down a gravel road, and people from California must not like to get their Lexus and Mercedes dirty. Because every other campground was packed, and this one was way more awesome than any other campground I have ever stayed at. We made some dinner, blew up our mattress and had a peaceful night of sleep.

5 States, 11 Days, 30 hours of driving and One little car...

DAY 1.

Snowball is packed up and we are on our way to Snowmass, Colorado. We drove all day to Virginia City, MT today, a grand total of 3 and a half hours from home. Virginia City is a little old fashioned type town with no cell phone coverage, 15 souvenir shops, 2 ice cream stores, and no gas station. Job had to drive on empty seven miles back to the last gas station, and then knock on the owners door so he could get gas. Hopefully it isn't a trend. He left me in Virginia City with Sierra, Sadie, and the 15 souvenir shops and two ice cream stores. But all's well that ends well and we finally made it to the RV camp site and they have wi-fi! Although it is not fast enough to upload my photos. I'll have to add them later. Until tomorrow...

Cousin Lucy

Kelly, Marshall, and Lucy came to visit...

...and now yay, we have a cousin...

...here are the two little cousins, Sadie really liked Lucy. She wanted to hold her and squeeze her and kiss her, or maybe eat her, we couldn't tell. In any case, it was a very good time and we miss them very much.

Happy Birthday Grandma Vivo!

This is late late late, but I have been on a blog sabbatical, so I haven't been puting much of anything up for a looooooooong time. But Grandma Vivo had a birthday on June 26 and we wanted to say happy belated birthday! We love you and miss you very much!

Sadie and the Fruit Leather

I miss...

...my Grammie Goody.

...my Grandaddy Lysle Sr.

...my Grammie Libby.

...my Grandpa Hindman.

...my sweet sorrel pony.

I don't have pictures of them, but I miss Juno and Rocky too.

The Piano Recital

Sierra says...

...THE funniest things when she wakes up in the morning. I think it usually has to do with whatever she is dreaming. She will be in bed, and not even have her eyes open and start talking. Today she said, "Dad, wouldn't it be awesome if green beans were in the shape of bow ties?"

Happy Birthday Dad/Grandaddy!

Happy birthday! We love you, you are the best Dad and Grandaddy anyone could ever have. We hope you have a great birthday, and we can't wait to see you soon.

Love,

Job, Julie, Sierra & Sadie

Looking back...

Sigh, I never thought I would live to say this, but I do miss the princess days...

First Show

Here is Sierra and the wonderpony FanC at their first show. As you can see, they had a great time, much fun was had by all, and we are very proud of them. You can see more photos at Sierra's blog page www.fancandhergirl.blogspot.com.

New blog name

Sierra and I decided we needed a better name for our blog, so from now on we will be blogging from The Lopez Corral, which is about as appropriate a name as we could get for our existence. Welcome to the new blog, here is a most recent photo of three of the girls, both the two footed and four footed variety.

Looking back...

Look at those cute kids... I can't believe how much they have changed since we left Colfax. We miss you guys!

Sadie and the Other Baby

The View Out Our Window Today

Sierra woke up sick at 3 this morning, which woke Sadie up to play for 3 hours. Once I finally got back to bed and woke again, we had snow! I think I would like to go back to bed.

Happy 6 Month Birthday To You

A blast from the past...

Just for fun, I thought I would post some photos from a while ago. I think Sierra was four when we took this trip to Florida with Grandma Vivo and Oma Chaki. Here we are at the Norwegian section of Epcot center sporting the Viking helmets. Grammie Goody would be proud! We had a lot of fun on that trip with Grandma Vivo and Oma Chaki. We miss you lots and love you lots!

A Fun Visit

Grandma Pat and Grandaddy Lysle visited us this last week. We had such a good time with them. They watched Sierra ride and had fun seeing how much Sadie has grown. Even Scout was very excited to see them when they got out of the car at our house. It was hard to say goodbye, but we look forward to seeing them again soon! We love you Grandma and Grandaddy!

I love this outfit...

Some dear friends, Shake and Rosig (I hope I spelled that right) gave us this cute outfit for Sadie, and I have been dying to take some photos of her in it. Especially before she grows out of it. It is made partially of rabbit hair, so it is so soft. Here are a couple of shots, I need to put up a couple of full body shots so that you can see the whole thing. It is made by Janie and Jack, and is too, too cute.

My New Ride

Job and Sierra bought me a new ride for my birthday/Christmas and it is finally here! Check out the sweet tread on the tires!

Wendy's Fault Again

My friend Wendy is has gotten me into blogging, gotten me back into sewing, made it fun to talk about house projects, and gotten me hooked on Craigslist. Here is the latest Craigslist find (Star was the first), my $100 couch! It is pretty much a brand new microsuede couch. Our house we have right now has a living room and a family room, and we have been surviving with a recliner and chair in the family room. Our living room has the couch Wendy gave us when she got her new couch. If I could count everything Wendy has done for me, I'd be here all day. Thank you my dear friend!

Last night Sierra and I looked at Auntie Jenny's blog and she had an awesome background from shabbyblogs.com. So we spent at least an hour putting different backgrounds on our blog. I liked this one because it reminds me of the antique bed Kelly and I shared until we moved to Walla Walla. That's all for today, but Easter photos will be up by tomorrow...

Happy Baby

We have been sick since we got back from CA. Being sick makes for a cranky baby, and a cranky baby makes for not a lot of sleep...cranky mom... So here is a video to cheer us all up. Because nothing makes you smile like a happy baby.

A Good Big Sister

Sierra is doing very well with her reading and she helps me a lot with Sadie by entertaining her. She is a good big sister, helper and babysitter.

Sierra and Star

Here is a video of Sierra riding the new Morgan horse Star. I always wanted a Morgan every since I got the movie "Justin Morgan had a Horse" for my seventh birthday. I keep telling Sierra that he is really my horse and she gets Echo the naughty Connemara.

Speaking of Echo, Leah, who is visiting from Switzerland had the delightful task of riding Echo today after her long winter off, since I am such a chicken. To my surprise, Echo behaved herself! No big surprise, Leah is a very good rider, I hope Echo doesn't expect as much from me. I can't wait to get back on after my year off.

Dressed Up For Church

Walla Walla Sweet

This is my favorite shirt of Sadie's, and a big thank you Auntie Jenny for the hat.

Grabbing Things

Star

Here is the new horse, Star. He will be helping out with Pony Club this year, along with Miss FanC.

The Littlest Lopez Princess

Now that the biggest Lopez Princess is no longer a self-professed princess, but a mustang instead, she passed the crown and wand on to the little princess in the house. Here is Sadie wearing the crown and scepter that Sierra made for her and dressed her in. Her nice purple throne is a Bumbo chair from Vicki. Every little princess should have one!

Vicki and Wendy's Fault

I have been reading and envying the blogs of my good friends Vicki Zanes and Wendy McGraw, for some time now. I have given in and decided I need one of these. Please don't anyone expect that my blog will be as nearly creative, insightful or regularly updated as the above mentioned blogs. I am only hoping to share some thoughts, photos and videos from our family since I am so lame at doing it regularly even by email!

So, since I have no recent photos or videos downloaded on my computer, (they are all sitting in their respective devices waiting for me to do something with them) I am putting on a video from last summer of Sierra trying to get her pony to trot through the water jump.

Look at those little legs go! And she isn't afraid to use that crop! Miss FanC is a saint of a pony and we love her dearly for taking good care of little Sierra.

So until next time (please don't hold your breath), adios!